Last week I posted a follow up  called: Migrating Lightroom 2 Catalogs to Lightroom 3 – Revisited.

Let me know if you have any questions!

From the course description …

“Are you a new to intermediate Lightroom user who is looking to take your Lightroom experience to the next level? Do you have the basics down, but still want to know more? Does Lightroom drive you crazy sometimes? Would you like to learn how to better integrate Lightroom into other aspects of your digital life? Would you like to avoid common problems and learn from the mistakes of others? Well then this is the course designed for you. After answering questions from thousands of Lightroom users over the last 3 years I created a course that covers the most common things people have been struggling to understand while integrating Lightroom into their photography workflow.”

Continue reading about Lightroomers Guide to Lightroom class over at ppsop.net. The part of this class I am most jazzed about is that it allows for a level of interaction between me and the students you won’t find in most online learning experiences. This class includes lessons, assignments, video tips and lots of Q&A interaction via the classroom message board. You’ll be able to reach me via email, my blog, and twitter too, so it is the next best thing to having me at your side for 4 weeks while you take your Lightroom skills to the next level!

PPSOP was founded by one of my long time photography heroes, Bryan Peterson, who authored (among many others) my all time favorite book on understanding exposure, perfectly named, Understanding Exposure. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to wrap your head around exposure once and for all.

Bryan produced a great video explaining how PPSOP courses work. My class will continue to run throughout the year so if the January 8 start date doesn’t work for you keep checking back for the next session. I look forward working closely with you over those 4 weeks!

If you are brand new to Lightroom and you are looking for a great place to get started then I suggest taking Jon Canfield’s Lightroom From Import to Output first and then take my class next. I’ve designed my class to build on the materials in Jon’s class so your learning continues to the next level!

Big thanks to Scott Bourne for providing the platform for my 10 Things I Wish I Could Tell Every New Lightroom  User blog post and big thanks to Scott Kelby for making it twice as good with his own 10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users list! I love it!

Well, not wanting this to just be a blog post about a blog post about a blog post here’s a few 5 new tips for you:

1. To quickly find where all your presets and templates are stored go to Lightroom > Preferences > Presets (Win: Edit > Preferences > Presets) and click the Show Lightroom Presets Folder button. They are all in there. Windows users will even find the Lightroom preference file in there.
2. If your presets should all vanish one day, check to make sure the Store Presets with Catalog box is unchecked.
3. If your photos appear to be getting overly brightened on import and you don’t know why, check to make sure Apply auto tone adjustments is not checked. The auto tone function is much improved in Lightroom 2, but I don’t think applying it to all imported photos is a good idea. Just use Auto Tone button in the Basic panel or the General – Auto Tone preset on a case-by-case basis.
4. While you have the Preferences dialog open click the File Handling tab and set your Camera Raw cache to 20GB and see if that gives you a speed boost in the Develop module (especially with the Adjustment Brush).
5. Now click on the Import tab and check the box next to Treat JPEG files next to raw files as separate photos so you will see both the raw and JPEG side by side in Lightroom after import.

Hope you find that helpful!

Late edit: I just saw that Matt Kloskowski did a blog post where he added 3 more Lightroom tips, so there’s at least 28 tips all bundled up for the taking.

Read The Purpose of Importing over at peachpit.com.

On each external drive my folders live inside a parent folder that is named the same as the drive. My portable 250GB drive is named “Sparta” (yes, I had been watching the movie 300). Every time I connect the drive a little voice says “This is Sparta!” (just kidding). So on that drive the top level folder is called SpartaPhotos, so with the two drives my Folders panel looks like this:

If you only have a single drive that you work with, then this tip isn’t going to do much for you, but I can’t tell you how many issues I see on the Help Desk related to missing/lost folder and photos. Hope this helps the rest of you!  

If that was checked, now that you have unchecked it import some new images and see if that solved the problem.

If the preference setting in Lightroom (Edit > Preferences > Import, uncheck “Show import dialog when a memory card is detected”) does not prevent the APD from loading during startup the only way to prevent the ADP from loading is to do the following:

- Go to the Start menu and click on the “Run”
- In the dialog box type “msconfig”. This opens the System Configuration Utility.
- Click on the Startup tab. There will be a list of startup items. These are programs that run at startup. To keep the Adobe Photo downloader from starting uncheck the box next to “apdproxy”.
- When you click the OK button you will be told the change will take effect the next time you start Windows. When you do restart, the you will get reminded that you have disabled some startup items, you can check the box to stop reminding you, and click OK.